Customize Ribbon Size to Make it Smaller

Anonymous
2013-08-26T01:47:56+00:00

I'm extremely disappointed that Microsoft has made the ribbon so HUGE and does not appear to offer any way of customizing its size other than completely collapsing it.  Between the menu bar, the ribbon, the formula bar, etc. almost HALF of the screen real estate is non-content. Microsoft has it backwards, thinking the more screen space should go to the user interface rather than the content. This is maddening, and it's extremely frustrating that Microsoft doesn't allow me to customize the size of the ribbon to maximize content. Does anyone know of a work around?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-20T05:12:35+00:00

    I too found this to be unacceptable.  Even on my extended monitor, it takes up such a large percent of the screen to the point it doesn't allow for proper display of information.  The more I attempt to use Office 2013, the more I am hating it because of the various issues with it including the color contrast, the sizes, and there's no way to really adjust it.  Windows 10 also took away a lot of these things that I had set in Windows 7 to the point I could only address a small portion of them via VBA coding.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-17T17:06:04+00:00

    When I looked up for an answer for the ribbon size was for Access 2016.  Anyway what I was able to do as I really only needed the find button, so I added it through the Customize Quick Accesses Toolbar.  So now I don't need the home ribbon on and then it gets me the space back that the Home Ribbon took up.  There are more functions that you can add with the Customize Quick Accesses Toolbar also.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-27T03:02:10+00:00

    I too have the problem--but I find that the problem is highly variable with the age of the monitor.  On my older monitor the operating system somehow just doesn't recognize the resolution correctly and the ribbon along with the other non content stuff takes up half the page.  When I'm using a newer monitor, it is well less than a quarter.  It doesn't seem to be a resolution problem, maybe a monitor driver problem.  Borrow a better monitor and see if that does the trick.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-22T04:22:45+00:00

    Solution found! Many thanks to Jeff_Engineer and StrategicData (above). 

    Thanks,

    Dee.

    I'm sorry, but where exactly is the "Top menu/task bar"?? I can't seem to find anything that looks like what is described.... Please HELP!'

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-07-13T15:18:15+00:00

    I just discovered how to make it more like Word 2010.  Go to the top menu/task bar.  Click on the icon that looks like a finger pointing and choose "mouse."  A quick, simple solution - though not at all intuitive.

    just a note for those looking for that pointing finger icon... you find this when you go to the top (first) row of the program (outlook for example) and you find the "quick access tool bar" (it's the eject cd looking icon - upside down triangle)... click that once and find/click "touch/mouse mode" in the drop menu.... THEN you'll see the pointing finger icon that allows you to select mouse vs touch mode.

    I also found this helps SLIGHTLY too:

    https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/outlook/2057-outlook-change-ribbon-font-size.html

    but ya... not by much :(

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